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Did you hear about the Gaelic-speaking Indian?

Actually I did. When I lived down between Laurinburg (formerly McLaurinburgh) and Aberdeen, NC, my neighbor (also a Newton. one married to a Munroe) told me that the Presbyterian church had had an endowment to bring a Gaelic speaking someone once a year up into the 1960s. They had some connection to a church on the Isle of Skye who would send a preacher to the little rural church.

Finally there was only one person in Scotland County that could understand the preacher from Skye. He was an elderly Lumbee Indian.

WHAT: “Did you hear about the Gaelic-speaking Indian?”: Geidhlig Folklore about Race in North America
WHO: Dr. Michael Newton
WHEN: Thursday, Feb 15th at 3:30
WHERE: Donovan Lounge in Greenlaw Hall at UNC-CH
ABSTRACT: In the mid-eighteenth century, Scottish Highlanders began to settle in North America and mingle with people distinctly different from themselves in appearance, especially people of Native American and African ancestry. Within a generation or two, due to social ties of several sorts, including slavery, many African Americans and Native Americans became fluent speakers of Scottish Gaelic. Folklore recorded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries relates to the shock of Highland emigrants, fresh from the boat, encountering these unfamiliar-looking Gaelic speakers. This talk will examine this folklore in its many variants, putting it in its wider context and exploring its meaning and purpose.

1 Comment

  1. Jeff

    Hi, this is very interesting. Can you name the Lumbee man who spoke Gaelic? Or could you provide a reference to that fact, or the contact information of the person who related this to you? I would be very interested to know this for my own research. Thanks so much.

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